This genre of this book would be “gothic dark academia Sapphic vampire enemies-to-lovers paranormal romance,” (GDASVETLPNR, as it were) which if I’m being honest sounds like a punchline. I’ve only read one or two PNRs ever, and not a huge amount of vampire stuff, so I’m hardly a genre expert here. But I burned through this and enjoyed every minute.
There are two protagonists: one, Laura, from a Mississippi backwater, an incoming freshman at a small, prestigious women’s college in Massachusetts. And then there’s Carmilla, a rising senior at the same college. Carmilla has been the favorite in Professor De Lafontaine’s select poetry seminar, but Laura was invited to join (very unusually for a freshman) and the two find themselves competing for Professor De Lafontaine’s rather capricious favor.
Carmilla can’t stand her young upstart rival, and finds her very existence a constant irritation in the back of her mind. She is determined to keep her place as Professor De Lafontaine’s favorite and confidant. Laura, meanwhile, finds Carmilla arrogant, infuriating, and unreasonably attractive. And Laura also wonders at the closeness of the relationship between Carmilla and Professor De Lafontaine; it clearly goes beyond the normal relationship between a teacher and pupil.
This book didn’t particularly catch me by surprise anywhere - it definitely adheres to a bunch of traditional tropes. But it caught me easily and read very quickly. It is rich, atmospheric, fun, and unapologetically smutty. A very enjoyable read.